These towns are small enough, they may not have anyone qualified to work that level. And if they do, they're probably already working on a Tuesday night.

And you're right, associations in these areas, if they exist at all, don't look anything like associations in metro areas.

If Iowa is like it is when I used to work baseball, the answer is not really. For one this might be a busy night where officials are already working. Or there is no one close to just pick up and work to anyone's satisfaction.

Iowa is mostly a rural state. It is hard to get to a lot of places if you are not close. Probably at the last minute no, but if they had an issue earlier in the day and knew there was a problem, then probably someone could have covered the game.

Peace

I find this post interesting from the point of how schools are contracted/assigned. When I started my officiating career (Georgia), the local associations were responsible for negotiating and contracting with the schools directly. These days, the GHSA assigns schools to the local association based on specific criteria (ie, geography, # of officials). The local association (there are 25 in the state, 7 in Metro Atlanta) then signs a contract with the school, who sends the season schedule to the association assignor. Our fees are set by the State and are non-negotiatble.

Just curious as to how many of you work in areas that contract directly with a school without any state oversight? Are your fees set by the state or can you negotiate?

Glad we don't have to deal with such nonsense.

Schools paid whatever they wanted.

And schools would pay whatever they felt would get officials to come to their school consistently. Actually I found rural schools pay more than urban or suburban places because they know people had to come further to work their games. And they want to get a cross section of officials coming to their school, not just a handful of the same officials.

Peace

+1

I've been fortunate and never had an issue. Assignor, Arbiter and confirmation emails, have served it's purpose well for me. We don't deal with the schools.

Has to be someone from Iowa here who has the poop on this?

As I've always said, there are plusses and minuses to our system. The plus is that I get to choose which conferences I want to work for and can work as many games or as few games as I want. When I lived in Tennessee, we all got assigned 2-3 dates a week and it was a closed shop -- even if I wanted to work more, I couldn't -- because I had to take what the association gave me.

The big minus is that I have to deal with about a dozen different assignors of varying quality.

The only snafu I have ever had is when the school changed the game time from 2 pm to noon on a Saturday and never informed the assignor. I got a frantic call from the AD as the visiting school was already there. I was an hour away and told him I would leave straightaway. I called my assignor, made several calls to my partner, and ended up working with a JV official for the DH.

I did schedule some of my own games with ADs when I worked a JV schedule, but everything else was via assignors. Here in FL it is totally that way. Sounds to me like someone may not have done due diligence here, and that someone likely was not the crew. (I have had late partners, but those guys have developed those reputations on their own.)

NYC-style...
 

NYC is different, mainly due to the volume of officials in the area. League games in the public schools are done through the Department of Education's athletic arm (PSAL). Non-league games are handled by the schools themselves. Each school finds one official or the home school will find both. The only problem there - to me - is getting paid. In league games the PSAL generates a check for you within 2-3 weeks after the scoresheet is posted on its web site. In non-league games the schools pay you directly, which can take months.

If it's a neutral site game (i.e., a tournament) there are more than enough guys who do assigning on the side to get those done.

I've had a few games where I've worked alone (none in a very long time) but we don't get many games where nobody shows. When that happens it's usually because the school changed the date, didn't tell anyone and didn't update it on the PSAL web site.

We get paid the night of the game. Checks are ready to go. Only a few places mail them and hose usually take about a week.

Catholic and Private schools in our area pay on the spot for the most part. With the publics there's too much red tape to hope they'd be able to get it done any better than they do now. The 2-3 weeks is a vast improvement.

In Westchester County and on Long Island officials get one big check at the end of the season.

We use to get paid at the site...but schools got away from it. Our assignor now pays us...and as of this year, is using RefPay. So far so good.

In my experience in the Chicago area, it was a total crapshoot as to when you got paid, as far as if it was by the school itself or the school district. Some schools, mainly the private schools, had checks made out on game day. Some districts would pay periodically for any games you worked in that district, and for others it would take months.

Our state activities association uses refpay for all playoff games also.